February 7, 2022 | 10:05 am GMT+7 Truong Chi Hung
Bang was my schoolmate back in middle school. After finishing ninth grade he dropped out though his results were the second best in the entire school.
At the time Uncle Sau, his father, said his family had plenty of farmlands, and so there was no need to study, and staying at home and farming was enough for him to live a healthy life.
At the age of 16 Bang just did as he was told by the adults. A few years later he became his family’s breadwinner. He was by himself taking care of two hectares of lands and growing three crops a year, and so there was never a shortage of food.
Then he got married, had children and built a family like all others in my hometown.
People in the Mekong Delta have a saying: “Barrels can be used to measure rice but no one uses barrels to measure letters,” meaning food and clothing are always top priority, but getting an education, while nice, is not an imperative.
Tiếp tục đọc “Migration, kids’ education and the future of the Mekong Delta”